Katy at Play Fitness and Coaching

Katy at Play Fitness and Coaching Helping women unleash their inner twenty-something and say hello to a more confident, energetic self

We ask everyone the same question at four months working together. What's the moment, the habit, the small thing that ac...
20/09/2026

We ask everyone the same question at four months working together.

What's the moment, the habit, the small thing that actually mattered?

We get a lot of different answers. Stronger. Better posture. Sleeping properly for the first time in years.

I personally love hearing all the responses but this one made me smile.

"I think just having the confidence to attend and forming a new habit."

Not a personal best. Not a number on anything. Just the fact of turning up, on a day she didn't feel like it, on a week that was too busy, and doing it anyway until it stopped being a decision and started being a habit.

She's 57, always been fairly active, always done a lot of sport in one form or another. She told us early on she felt "clapped out but not quite fit for the knackers yet."

Four months later, the thing she's proudest of isn't the strength, or even the confidence in her clothes, though she mentioned both.

It's that she just... comes. And somewhere in the last four months, she showed up enough times that showing up stopped being the hard part.

That's the whole game, most weeks. Not the deadlift. The turning up.

Because once that happens and happens regularly, that is when the beginning of everything else begins.

Katy x

Her shoulder was the reason she nearly didn't sign up. Two months later, it's the reason she did.She came to us already ...
19/09/2026

Her shoulder was the reason she nearly didn't sign up. Two months later, it's the reason she did.

She came to us already active, already loving her classes, already fairly confident in her body. But her shoulder had been niggling for a while, and starting something new felt like exactly the wrong moment to do it in.

Most people would have waited. That's a completely reasonable instinct. Nobody wants to make an injury worse in the name of getting stronger.

But waiting doesn't fix a shoulder. It just teaches it to stay quiet and hope nobody notices.

So instead of working around her shoulder by avoiding it altogether, we built movement in that actually helped it. Exercises that, done properly, gave it a kind of mobility it hadn't had in a long time. Nothing dramatic about any of it. Just consistent, considered, and never ignored.

Two months in, she told us: "I'm seeing real progress, feeling like my coaches absolutely have my back and will help me get the best out of my body and the session."

The shoulder's still there. We're not going to pretend otherwise. But it's better than it was, and it's stopped being the thing deciding what she can and can't do in a session.

It's just quieter now. That's not nothing. That's the whole point.

DM us and tell us what you've been waiting to feel "fixed" before you'll let yourself start. And we will have a natter with you about what you could be doing to help it - no strings attached.

Katy x

Sore back. Sore knees. Sore hips. Sore shoulder. We hear some version of this in almost every consultation.And almost ev...
18/09/2026

Sore back. Sore knees. Sore hips. Sore shoulder.

We hear some version of this in almost every consultation.

And almost every woman who says it means it as a disqualifier. As in, I'd love to, but. As in, once this settles down, then I'll start.

The niggle isn't a reason to wait. It's exactly the reason to start.

One woman told us her back and her knee were "dodgy," on and off for years. A flare-up after one class doing kettlebell swings left her barely able to walk, six weeks to get back to normal.

Understandably, she got cautious. But "dodgy" wasn't actually stopping her doing anything day to day. It just needed to be worked around instead of waited on.

Waiting for a niggle to disappear before you build the muscle around it means you never build the muscle. It just gets weaker, and the niggle gets louder. Working around it, sensibly, with someone who's actually looking, is how the niggle starts to matter less.

We're not being reckless with anyone's back, hips, shoulders or knees. We're building the plan around what's actually going on with it.

That's a completely different thing to ignoring it, and a completely different thing to waiting for permission from a body that was never going to volunteer it.

If you've been waiting for the niggle to go away first, that's the bit we'd like to change your mind about.

DM us and we'll tell you how we'd actually approach things with you.

Katy x

Nobody signs up for a five-week programme because they want five weeks of anything.Nobody's actual goal is "feel slightl...
16/09/2026

Nobody signs up for a five-week programme because they want five weeks of anything.

Nobody's actual goal is "feel slightly stronger for a month and then stop."

The five weeks is never the point. It's the smallest possible unit of starting. It's the bit that's easy enough to say yes to, when the whole rest of it, the years of it, the version of you at the end of it, feels far too big to commit to on a weekday afternoon.

Women sign up because somewhere has to be week one. And week one is a lot less frightening when it comes with an end date attached, even if that end date turns out to be the least important part of the whole thing.

If you've been waiting for the moment that feels big enough to justify starting, we'd gently suggest that moment doesn't arrive.

You just pick a five-week version of it and go.

5-Week Beginners Strength Programme, starting 21st September. DM us START for more details or take a peek at the link in our bio.

Katy x

She used to deny herself the thing she wanted after dinner. A bit of something sweet, most nights. Denied it, held off, ...
15/09/2026

She used to deny herself the thing she wanted after dinner. A bit of something sweet, most nights. Denied it, held off, told herself no.

And then, later, the cereal. Straight out of the box, standing at the cupboard, not even really what she wanted anymore by that point.

The thing about willpower though. It isn't a switch you flick. It's a tax, and it gets collected later, usually with interest, usually at 10pm, usually not from the thing you actually wanted in the first place.

So we didn't ask her to want less. We asked a different question.

What if the craving wasn't the enemy? What if it just needed a better answer than "no"?

Now there's a nutritious version of the thing she wanted, planned for and waiting.

A low-calorie frozen yoghurt in the freezer. A sparkling drink if the itch is still there after that. Nothing magic. Just there, on purpose, before 10pm arrives and makes the decision for her.

We didn't stop the itch. We just helped her find something better to scratch it with.

Weeks now with the cereal box staying shut. And the bit that actually surprised her: she's properly hungry the next morning.

Her body's asking for breakfast instead of her having to remind herself to eat it.

That's not more discipline. That's a body that's finally been given a plan it can trust.

DM us and tell us what you've been denying yourself lately, we'll help you find a better way to answer it. As in we will actually get back to you and have a natter with no strings attached.

Katy

Five weeks won't fix everything. It will be enough to make you suspicious that more is possible.We're not going to stand...
14/09/2026

Five weeks won't fix everything. It will be enough to make you suspicious that more is possible.

We're not going to stand here and tell you five weeks will undo ten years of back pain, or fix your whole relationship with food in thirty-five days. That's not what this is for.

Here's what it is for. It's enough time to pick something up that feels properly heavy, and realise your body handled it better than you'd have bet on.

It's enough time to notice you're standing a bit differently, or carrying the shopping without thinking about it for the first time in years.

It's enough time for one small, specific, undeniable thing to happen that makes you think: "Hang on. What else have I been assuming I couldn't do?"

That question is the whole product. Not the five weeks.

We've run this programme enough times now to know what actually happens isn't really about the five weeks at all.

It's the first crack in an assumption many have been carrying for years, that their body's done, that it's someone else's turn to feel strong now.

Five weeks won't fix everything. It'll just be enough to make you suspicious that more is possible than you've been telling yourself.

5-Week Beginners Strength Programme, starting 21st September.

DM us START for all the details or click the link in our bio.

Katy x

The marketing needed a time length, so we gave it 5 weeks. What actually happens doesn't come with an end date.The 5-Wee...
13/09/2026

The marketing needed a time length, so we gave it 5 weeks. What actually happens doesn't come with an end date.

The 5-Week Beginners Strength Programme starts on the 21st of September. Two sessions a week, small group, right here in central Brighton. On paper, that's the whole offer.

But here's what we've watched happen, over and over.

It's the first time in years some of these women pick something up properly heavy and realise their body was never as fragile as they'd been told it was. That's not a five-week discovery. That tends to stick around.

We know five weeks sounds like a short commitment, and it is meant to be. That's the point. It's small enough to actually start.

But we've seen this exact programme be the beginning of a completely different relationship with what a body can do, not just for September, but for the next thirty years.

No experience needed. No equipment to buy. No assumption you already know what a deadlift is, or that you'll feel comfortable in a room full of mirrors and people twenty years younger than you.

Just a coach who's living the same chapter of life as you, and a group small enough that nobody falls through the gaps.

Starts 21st September.

DM us START for all the details, and the start of 5 weeks, 5 months, 5 years, the rest of your life.

Katy

A client's review landed this week and it's stuck with us since."Normal shapes, sizes and abilities."That's how she desc...
11/09/2026

A client's review landed this week and it's stuck with us since.

"Normal shapes, sizes and abilities."

That's how she described the room. Not extraordinary. Not inspirational. Not before-and-after. Normal.

In an industry that photographs six women out of six hundred in transformation photos and calls it representative, normal is the review we've been waiting for.

It means someone walked in expecting to feel like the exception and instead just felt like... herself, among other women exactly like her.

This is the whole point of what we've built. Not a room full of extraordinary. A room full of normal, getting stronger, together.

Comment "normal" if that's exactly the room you've been looking for.

Katy

Two osteopaths. Two years. One ruptured disc.Lisa's back pain didn't ease off... it just kept coming back, patched up fo...
09/09/2026

Two osteopaths. Two years. One ruptured disc.

Lisa's back pain didn't ease off... it just kept coming back, patched up for a while, then right back where it started. Two years of that is exhausting in a way that's hard to explain unless you've lived it.

Then a physiotherapist told her something that sounds almost backwards: try strength training. Not more caution. Not more rest. The opposite of everything the pain had been telling her to do for two years.

She started with a two-week trial and signed up full time before it even ended.

Six months on, the back pain that made her life "pretty miserable," her words, has all but gone. Her programme was built around the injury from day one, adjusted whenever something felt off.

This isn't about pushing through pain. It's about building the muscle that actually protects the joint, instead of avoiding using it altogether.

We hear some version of Lisa's story a lot. Women told for years to be careful, to rest, to protect. And what actually changes things is the opposite: getting stronger around the injury, not around it.

Thanks Lisa, for trusting us with something that had been going on a very long time.

DM us and tell us what pain's been stopping you from doing and we will share some simple suggestions of what you could be doing at home to help.

Katy

Every consultation starts pretty much the same way."I don't really know why I'm here. I just know something has to chang...
07/09/2026

Every consultation starts pretty much the same way.

"I don't really know why I'm here. I just know something has to change."

We've heard some version of that sentence more times than almost anything else in this job. Ther eis rarely a big dramatic statement. Nobody arrives with a five-year plan and a vision board.

Most women turn up slightly apologetic, slightly unsure if they're allowed to want something just for themselves.

Here's what the years of consultations like this one has taught us. That sentence isn't a lack of clarity. It's the clearest thing a person can say.

You don't need a reason lined up like evidence in a court case. "Something has to change" is a complete sentence. It's enough.

We ask a few more questions after that. Sleep. Energy. What she's tried before. What she's actually worried about. But we've never once needed her to justify wanting more for herself.

If you've got that exact sentence sitting somewhere and no idea what to do with it... that's what the consultation is for.

Not a plan. A conversation.

Katy

Address

Brighton And Hove

Telephone

+447956004966

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